Effort Level vs Exact Paces for Tempo Runs

Audio Transcript

Coach Michael: Hey Runners Connect fans. Today, we have a question from George about paces and effort levels.

George: Hi. I’m a marathoner from Marietta, Georgia.

I had a question about the training paces that are assigned as part of a marathon build. What I’m wondering is whether it’s important to hit those specific paces or is it enough to simply hit those effort levels?

For example, let’s say, I was supposed to do a 3 mile tempo run and my tempo pace is 6 minutes per mile.

That would be an 18-minute tempo run. If I do that tempo run on a hilly course or say on the dirt down by the river rather than doing it on a track, it might be that the best that my tempo effort level will get is like 6:10 or 6:15 pace.

Is there a reason why I need to hit 6-minute pace or is getting into that tempo range, that tempo effort level by running 6:10-6:15 pace good enough. Thanks. I enjoy the podcast.

Coach Michael: This is a great question George, one that we face at Runners Connect quite often.

When prescribing paces, we have to assume it’s a track or a flat road.

We can give ranges but it’s still an issue when you’re on very hilly routes, soft surfaces, or anything else that makes it harder to hit paces.

The number one point to make here is that effort is by far the most important.

I’m going to repeat that. Effort is by far the most important.

That’s really the point that needs to be driven home here. Ultimately effort is more important than your exact pace.

I talked about this on episode 31, so be sure to listen to that as well. Now all that said, it’s not really a black and white issue. So let’s find that spot in the middle.

Let’s talk about hills first.

First off, you can pretty much automatically add about 10 to 20 seconds or per mile for really hilly routes.

That’s just a good general rule of thumb to follow. But it really depends. I mean, what’s the incline? How long are the hills? Are we talking about rolling hills? Are we talking about just a few really big hills?

Are we talking about a series of small hills and then a flat section then another series of big hills?

It’s very individual and it depends on your exact situation. Now if we’re talking about rolling hills, so that means your route is generally littered with hills that are moderately sized.

Pretty much, no matter what, you’re going to want to adjust the paces before you even start. That’s why I said that 10 to 20 seconds per mile is a good rule of thumb to go by, almost no matter what.

Obviously, they’re going to be situations where you have to add a lot more than that, but it’s just a good way to start. It’s about that 10 to 20 seconds per mile.

If we’re talking about occasional big hills, you can simply adjust just for those specific portions.

For instance, let’s say you’re doing that three mile tempo that he talked about and there’s about one hill per mile; one really big hill that’s going to take a minute or two to get up per a mile.

At that point, you need to adjust while you’re on the hill. You can run a six minute pace while you’re on the flat sections, then when you get to the hill, you’re going to have to adjust.

And here’s a big thing, it’s going to be quite a big adjustment.

When you’re going up a very steep hill, some people think that you can just add a little bit of time but you’ll need to be flexible and willing to go pretty slow, to stay within that tempo effort.

Now important to note here while we’re talking about hills; hills are great for you. Hills are awesome.

If you live in a hilly area, you have a big advantage. The only disadvantage, I talked about that in that other episode, is that it’s a little bit difficult sometimes to get recovery runs in.

But overall, you’ll have better strength and endurance. You’ll also be a much better runner. But you have to respect the hill.

At Runners Connect, we prescribe hill workouts pretty often.

An example would be perhaps, 8 times 30 seconds uphill, with just a walk or jog down rest. And what we’ll say is, we want this at about a seven minute per mile effort.

What that means is the effort it takes to run seven minute pace on flat terrain, not to actually run seven minute pace up the hill.

The effort it would take to run seven minute pace on flat terrain, you run that up the hill.

A bunch of our members read that and go, I should probably run 7:15-7:20 pace. Just add like twenty seconds per mile, and that’s completely false. Unless it’s just a very slight incline.

If we’re talking about a five or six percent gradient then, you’re going to need to add quite a bit to that pace, more like a minute plus. This is truly just something most people don’t realize.

You can go run, let’s say you’re running seven minute pace, and that’s your tempo pace. You could go run nine minute pace up a really steep hill, and your heart rate is going to be through the roof.

You’ll be going as hard as you can up a minute long hill or something like that, and you’ll be running as hard as you can, to run a pace that’s very slow. So while hills are incredibly beneficial, they really slow you down, perhaps more than you know which is completely okay.

The same thing can be applied to soft surfaces. Here’s an extreme example.

Go run on the beach. You won’t come close to your normal paces, yet you’ll be giving it everything you’ve got which just shows you that you really do have to adjust.

That’s obviously an extreme example, but if you think about that and you think about a more general soft surface like dirt, or wood chips, or gravel, or something like that; it’s going to be very different than a track or a road.

You’re going to have to adjust a little bit. Now this will all take practice. It’s really a trial and error process. To start with, err on the side of caution.

In this specific case where we’re talking about this three mile tempo at about 6 minute pace, try running at 6:30 pace to start with and see what happens. Whether that’s on a really soft route or really hilly route, just start at 6:30 pace, see how that feels.

Hey, maybe the first one is too easy. Maybe you finish and you are like, “Man I feel like I was out on a jog.” That’s good. We’d rather you do that than overdo it. And then you can adjust from there, maybe next time you run 6:25 pace, next time you run 6:20 pace until you get to that effort level that’s consistent with what we want from a tempo.

Now, I like to think of effort in terms of percentages. So we’re talking about a tempo run. That’s about 80-85% effort something like that, 100% being all out of course.

For reference, VO2 max workouts, we would put those more around 90% effort, sometimes a bit more for the really fast intervals, and of course your easy pace is much lower. Another good way to think of tempo pace, it’s the pace you could run for one hour.

So if you were in an hour long race, where you covered however much distance you could, you resulting pace is roughly your tempo pace. So for an example, let’s say you’ve run one hour for the 10K. Then that’s easy, your 10K pace is effectively your tempo pace.

Now my final tip on tempos, always finish with something left in the tank. You never want to be completely depleted after a tempo, that means that you over did it.

You should feel like you could go another mile if you had to, but relatively comfortably, you could go another mile. This will help with your overall recovery and it ensures that you’re actually within that tempo effort zone which is extremely important.

If you go too hard, you don’t really work the same energy system. And as always, it’s important to train smart not just hard.

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Thanks for tuning in Runners Connect fans, and have a great run today.